Whaley/Democrat photo
Spaulding's Mark Leahy, front, tries to save the ball as Alvirne's David Baldwin looks on during Division I action Friday in Rochester.

ROCHESTER — The Spaulding High School boys basketball team couldn’t wait to get to the second half after a subpar first half found them trailing Alvirne by one point.

The break at the intermission did them good. The Red Raiders opened the third quarter with 14 straight points and went on to cruise past the Broncos in Division I action Friday, 74-52.

“We had a good talk in the locker room,” Spaulding guard Alex Gray said. “Everybody realized we needed to come out with more energy. That’s what we did. Once we got the momentum, we kept it going from there.”

Down 25-24 at the half, Spaulding (4-0) came out of the locker room and went on a 14-0 run to go up 38-25 at 4:41.

Charlie Nevejans tied the game at 25-all with a foul shot, Nick MacGregor followed with a layup to put the Red Raiders up for good, 27-25. Gray drained a 3-pointer from the right corner and Dominic Paradis completed an old-fashioned 3-point play for a 33-25 lead.

A trey by Seth Fogg and Gray’s steal and nifty layup widened the gap to 13 before Alvirne was able to score.

“That’s what got it going, scoring right off the bat, coming out strong” Gray said. “I realized when I hit the 3 the fans were into it and then we got all the momentum and everybody seemed to come together. The chemistry was good.”

Paradis led the Red Raiders with a game-high 22 points (14 in the second half), followed by MacGregor with 15 (12 in the second half) and Gray with 10.

Spaulding hit seven 3-pointers, led by Paradis, MacGregor and Gray with two each. Four came in the pivotal third quarter.

“We really picked it up defensively and that sparked our offense,” Paradis said.

Tyler Brown and Tyler Livingston led Alvirne (2-2) with 10 points each. All of Livingston’s points came in the opening half.

Spaulding built its lead to 15 after three stops (51-36).

Nevejans (eight points) converted a three-point play to start the fourth quarter to get the lead to 18 and the Red Raiders were on their way.

The first half was a different story.

It was a struggle for both teams offensively. The Broncos led 11-10 after the first quarter and took a 25-24 lead into the locker room on Alex Wetmore’s bucket with 14.2 seconds to play.

Paradis netted eight points in the opening half to lead the Red Raiders, including a pair of 3-pointers. Livingston had 10 for Alvirne and Brown added seven.

“I think we just underestimated them coming out,” Gray said. “We came out too lackadaisical. We kind of played down to their level. We didn’t play to our full potential.”

“First half we had a lot of good opportunities, but they weren’t falling,” Paradis added. “The second half we really played unselfish ball. We were able to get everyone touches and get the good shots that we needed.”